March 22, 2014
Train: 12434 H. Nizamuddin Chennai Rajdhani Express
On a chilly march morning, the Chennai bound Rajdhani Express exits from Nagpur pf2, led by LGD WAP7 30318. AS we move out, we can see the Nagpur Station coming to life, with people waiting for the early morning arrivals and departures. Its a merry run till Sewagram Jn., where we are halted on the Mainline between pf2& 3. During this time, the Dhanbad bound Deekshabhoomi express departs and proceeds towards Nagpur. After a few mins of unscheduled halt, the signal goes proceed...
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and the Rajdhani switches tracks to curve away towards Balharshah. As the bright early morning sunlight reflects upon the red carriages, the Nagpur bound tri-weekly express from Secunderabad approaches Sewagram for a scheduled halt.
We picked up speed pretty soon and hurried away towards Balharshah. Except for the odd slow down at Tadali Jn., the run was MPS all the way to the CR limits. At Balharshah we were received in pf1 and simultaneously the NDLS bound Grand Trunk Express was received on pf4. After that missed crossing, the Rajdhani departed and darted ahead towards Warangal.
Track maintenance works and OHE works on the northbound mainline, forced us to loop into many stations. And the no. of unscheduled halts that day seemed to be much more than usual. Sirpur, Manchiryal, Ramgundam, Bigusir Sharif, you name it, we are looped. Bellampalli was the most irritating, Kerala express was looped into pf2 for an overtake by us. And even though pf3 was empty, we were made to reverse loop into pf1 and escape from the station, delaying our already delayed Rajdhani by another few mins.
The Key high speed crossings were the New Delhi bound Tamilnadu Express, Andhra Pradesh Superfast Express (now christined as Telengana Express); the Delhi bound Bangalore Rajdhani and the Gorakhpur bound Raptisagar Express and the Lucknow bound Gomtisagar Express. The only significant high speed overtake was that of the Ajni-Kazipet Passenger led by a BZA WAM4.
We entered Warangal horribly late by over 2hrs. NDLS bound Kerala express crossed us here. As we left Warangal, the Kakinada-Shirdi Express entered for a scheduled halt led by an LGD WAP4. After Warangal, the Rajdhani did its best to maintain the 2hr delay all the way till Vijayawada and beyond. At Vijayawada, we met the 2nd longest running train of Indian Railways- the Himsagar express bound for Jammu Tawi. Presently the train is extended to Katra. It was a grueling run to say the least, but every moment was enjoyable.
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